Felt Christmas Tree Tutorial

The wonderful Kelley over at The Grant Life has invited me to contribute to her blog. Each month, I'll be sharing one or two crafty or sewing related posts. Here's the first one I shared with her readers.

My little miss is a little ball of energy  She does not stop. Ever. We already had enough of a problem with our Christmas tree due to our three cats. We can only decorate the top half. Emma is at the age where she's old enough to want to be in the tree all the time but not old enough to understand to stay out of it. Rather than pull my hair out this Christmas season, my husband and I decided not to put up the tree this year.

I still wanted something festive in our living room. Hence, this felt tree. Felt sticks to itself. Emma can go nuts decorating and redecorating the tree. I'm hoping she'll play with it over and over again!

Want to make your own? You'll need:
Green Craft felt sold by the yard. {It's 72 inches wide so you'll only need to buy the width you want. I got 3/4yd just to be safe and had tons left!}
Various Colored Craft Felt Squares
Hot glue
Craft ruler, scissors, and large cutting surface {I used a rotary cutter for cutting my tree}
3m Command Strips

Start out by evening up your green tree felt. Then, cut it to height according to your space {and child's height}. For me, this was 30 inches.

To make the tree shape, you'll start by folding the green felt in half hot dog style.

To explain how to cut the tree shape, I'll give you the dimensions I used. You'll need to adjust these according to your desired height. It helped me to have a picture of a clip art Christmas tree open while I was cutting.

Starting at the bottom, cut in 12 inches at an angle. Next, cut out parallel to the bottom towards the outside 6 inches. Cut 12 inches inward at an angle. Now cut parallel to the bottom 7.5 inches. Cut on an angle 9.5 inches and out 6 inches. Now cut your top point on a 15 inch angle.

Now, its time to make the presents to line the bottom of your tree. I made five different presents.

I made three squares measuring 8 inches by 8 inches, 10 inches by 10 inches, and 9 inches by 9 inches. I made two rectangles measuring 8 inches by 4 inches and 11 inches by 3 inches.

Decorate your packages as you desire. Use hot glue to attach these decorations. Hot glue the presents together into a long strip and then glue them to the tree.

Almost done! It's time to go nuts making ornaments. I used various sized cups and bowls to draw the circles onto my felt. I also cut small rectangles to look like ornament tops. Be sure to use either a marker close to the color of the felt or a disappearing ink pen. If you create decorations for the ornaments, hot glue them on.

Don't forget to make a star for the top of the tree!

Now, use the command strips to attach the felt tree to your wall in several places. You don't want curious hands pulling the tree down.

Let your little one loose to enjoy their new-found Christmas fun!